The carpet cushion industry offers several solutions for adding cushion to carpet. The most commonly used carpet cushioning products consist of frothed polyurethane, prime polyurethane, rebond, and rubber. Fiber pads only play a limited role in the carpet cushioning industry. Known fiber pads are manufactured using various non-woven techniques, including carding, cross-lapping, and needle punching. In these known fiber pads, the fibers are oriented in a common horizontal plane and lack the resiliency and compression-dampening needed for carpet cushioning. Airlaying can also be used to manufacture fiber pads. Although airlaying can produce fiber pads having at least some non-horizontal structure, these fiber pads still lack the resiliency and compression-dampening needed for carpet cushioning.
Thus, there is a need in the pertinent art for a fiber pad that possesses the resiliency and compression-dampening characteristics needed for carpet cushioning applications. Additionally, there is a need in the pertinent art for a fiber pad with desirable resiliency and compression-dampening characteristics that can be manufactured using post-consumer carpet in a low-cost manner.